Twenty-five patients with unstable fracture or fracture-dislocation of the thoracolumbar and lumbar spines were treated with Cotrel-Dubousset instrumentation. Internal fixation was done in two ways; long rodding in seventeen patients and short rodding in eight. Short segment posterolateral or posterior autogenous iliac bone graft was done in all cases. The amount of correction of the collapsed anterior vertebral body height and the local kyphotic angle at the immediate post-operation were similar between the two groups, but loss of correction at last follow-up was more severe in the short rodding group. Instrument failure was also more common in the short rodding group. In conclusion, it was found that short segment stabilization of spine fractures with Cotrel-Dubousset instrument can effectively reduce fracture but can not maintain reduction until fusion. Therefore, long rodding was reconfirmed to be the better method of stabilization of the thoracolumbar and lumbar spines fractures.
Body Height ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Methods ; Spine ; Transplants

No abstract available.
Arteriovenous Fistula*

PURPOSE: Intravaginal slingplasty(IVS) is a alternative technique in the treatment of stress urinary incontinence in women. The author reports the long-term results of IVS procedure and compares to the long-term results of tension-free vaginal tape(TVT) procedure. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 25 women treated with IVS were compared to 25 women treated with TVT. The follow up period of all patients was mean of 30 months. All patients were preoperatively evaluated with detailed history, physical exam, 1 hour pad test and urodynamic study. Operation was carried out under general anesthesia. Operation time, hospitalization time, perioperative complication, cure rate and long-term follow-up data were evaluated. Long-term follow-up data was obtained from questionnaires on whether or not continuation of stress incontinence and subjective satisfaction. RESULTS: Two groups were similar in their mean ages, body mass index and mean parities. No patient demonstrated uninhibited detrusor contraction in cystometry. Mean operation time were 29.4 minutes(20~40), 31.6 minutes(25~40), and mean hopitalized duration were 3.3 days, 4.0 days for IVS and TVT, respectively. Perioperative bladder injury were 0 case(0%) and 2 cases(8%) and hemoglobin decrease were 1.5 gm/dl and 1.7 gm/dl for IVS and TVT, respectively. Vaginal erosion and infection were 1 case(4%) and 0 cases(0%) for IVS and TVT, respectively. Objectively, 3 months postoperative cured/improved/failed rates were 88%/12%/0%, 84%/16%/0% for IVS and TVT, long-term follow-up cured/improved/failed rates were 76%/20%/4%, 80%/12%/8% for IVS and TVT, respectively. Subjective satisfaction rates with the procedure were 80% and 88%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Both procedures had equally high rate of long-term cure, satisfaction and perioperative complication in the surgical treatment of stress urinary incontinence. IVS is simple, safe and effective treatment.
Anesthesia, General ; Body Mass Index ; Female* ; Follow-Up Studies* ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Surgical Mesh ; Urinary Bladder ; Urinary Incontinence* ; Urinary Incontinence, Stress ; Urodynamics

An application of the multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) for cardiac imaging is the non-invasive CT angiographic assessment of the cardiac morphology and the coronary arteries. The most important application is for the non-invasive diagnosis of coronary artery disease, and this includes assessment of coronary artery anomaly and stenosis, the evaluation of non-calcified atherosclerotic plaque and the follow-up examinations after stent deployment and bypass surgery. In the study, we have illustrated a variety of diseases of the coronay artery by using MDCT. These may facilitate the understanding of MDCT features of coronary artery lesions.
Arteries ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Coronary Angiography* ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Coronary Vessels ; Diagnosis ; Follow-Up Studies ; Multidetector Computed Tomography* ; Plaque, Atherosclerotic ; Stents

BACKGROUNDS/AIMS: In the treatment of complicated cholecystitis, laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) has limited efficacy due to its substantial post-operative complications. In addition, the clinical characteristics of complicated cholecystitis (CC) patients were suspected as advanced age with highly risky comorbidity. Percutaneous transhepatic gall bladder (PTGBD) drainage could be an alternative option for successful LC. Hence, this study evaluated the outcome of PTGBD for CC within and after 5 days. METHODS: The medical records of 109 consecutive CC patients who had undergone an LC between January 2007 and December 2011 were retrospectively reviewed and compared with the medical records of CC patients who had undergone an LC within 72 hours of (group I, n=63) or 5 days after PTGBD (group II, n=40). In addition, group I was divided into group Ia (n=46) and group Ib (n=17), according to the patients' development of open-conversion or post-operative complications. The clinical outcomes of the four groups were analyzed. RESULTS: There was a significantly higher reference to age, the ASA score grading, and predominant comorbidities in group II than in group I. The peri-operative results of group II showed lower blood loss and relatively shorter operating times than those of group I. In the cases of early LC within 72 hours (group Ia vs. group Ib), the difference was statistically insignificant. CONCLUSIONS: The delayed LC after PTGBD for complicated cholecystitis with high clinical risk had better results in this study, although it prolonged the patient's hospital stay.
Cholecystectomy, Laparoscopic ; Cholecystitis ; Cholecystitis, Acute ; Comorbidity ; Drainage ; Gallbladder ; Humans ; Length of Stay ; Medical Records ; Retrospective Studies ; Urinary Bladder

No abstract available.
Arteriovenous Fistula* ; Renal Dialysis*

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the general health status and severity of exposure to hazardous agents - with a focus on heavy metals - of migrant workers utilizing the 2005 Special Health Examination data. METHODS: With data from the 2005 Special Health Examination, we examined the biologic exposure indices and several major clinical exam items of 25,086 migrant workers in the whole country in comparison with those of 19,616 native Korean workers in Kyunggi-do province. Of these we chose homogeneous samples from the same 3 health service centers in Kyunggi-do. (native workers:19,616, migrant workers:1,886) to be more precise. RESULTS: The results from the samples of the 3 centers were as follows. Blood lead (natives: 6.09 microgram/dl migrants: 8.37 microgram/L) and cadmium (natives: 0.29 microgram/dl, migrants: 0.36 microgram/L) were higher in the migrant workers than in the native Korean workers, whereas the biologic exposure indices of organic solvents were higher in the native workers. As for major clinical exam items, the liver battery was worse in the natives with incidence of abnormal AST/ALT level (natives: 8.1/6.8% migrants: 5.7/5.4%, p-value<0.01 for AST). Anemia was more prevalent in the migrant workers (natives: 9.0% migrants: 11.0%, p-value<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Migrant workers in Korea are more frequently or more severely exposed to a hazardous working environment containing heavy metals. However, we were not able to explain the results for the exposure indices or organic solvents, and such an explanation will require further study in the future.
Anemia ; Cadmium ; Health Services ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Liver ; Metals, Heavy ; Population Groups ; Solvents ; Transients and Migrants

PURPOSE: Laparoscopic totally extraperitoneal herniorrhaphy (TEP) was developed as an alternative treatment of inguinal hernias to open hernia repair. This study evaluated 92 cases of laparoscopic surgery to determine the effectiveness and safety of laparoscopic TEP. METHODS: Laparoscopic TEP was performed on 92 patients with inguinal hernias from January 2008 to December 2010. Through a retrospective study of these patients, information om TEP repair was collected including the patients' characteristics, operation time, hospital stay, analgesic use and related complications. RESULTS: Laparoscopic herniorrhaphy were performed on a total of 92 patients (85 men and 7 women, age ranging from 16 to 83 years, with a mean of 56 years). The mean operation time for a unilateral inguinal hernia and bilateral inguinal hernia was 58.7 and 84.2 min, respectively. The mean postoperative hospital stay was 4.0 days (range, 2~9 days). Thirty nine patients were discharged without an analgesic injection, whereas 36 patients were injected with analgesic on the day of surgery. Of these 92 procedures, 10 complications were recorded; one granuloma complication, two patients with operation site discomfort, five with urinary retention issues, one patient with a scrotal seroma, and one patient with scrotal edema. CONCLUSION: TEP repairs have minimal morbidity and are more effective with less pain than the open procedure. TEP repair can be considered a favorable procedure for patients who request minimally invasive procedures for inguinal hernia repairs.
Female ; Granuloma ; Hernia ; Hernia, Inguinal ; Herniorrhaphy ; Humans ; Laparoscopy ; Length of Stay ; Male ; Pyrazines ; Retrospective Studies ; Seroma ; Urinary Retention

PABAP (Palindrome Analysis by BLAST Program) is an analysis system that identifies palindromic sequences from a large genome sequence up to several megabases long. It uses NCBI BLAST as a searching engine, and data processing such as alignment filtration and detection of inverted repeats which satisfy user- defined parameters is performed by manipulating data after populating into a MySQL database. PABAP outperforms publicly available palindrome search program in that it can detect large palindrome with internal spacer at a faster speed from bacterial genomes. It is a standalone application and is freely available for noncommercial users. AVAILABILITY: This application was implemented with free software (Perl, Apache, MySQL, and NCBI BLAST) and is freely available to noncommercial users upon request. Analysis of user data can be carried out directly at http://chimp.kribb.re.kr/~javamint/palindrome.
APACHE ; Filtration ; Genome* ; Genome, Bacterial

We report the case of a giant cell tumor with diffuse interstitial hemorrhaging and unusually prominent cystic components in the soft tissue of the thigh which has not been reported previously. Magnetic resonance image (MRI), showed signal intensity typical of a giant cell tumor. However, because of its conspicuous large well-circumscribed cystic components, the differential diagnoses, based on the image findings from an ultrasonography (US) and MRI, were complicated epidermoid cyst, cystic change of a neurogenic tumor, and a parasitic cyst.
Adult ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Giant Cell Tumors/*diagnosis/pathology/surgery/ultrasonography ; Humans ; *Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Soft Tissue Neoplasms/*diagnosis/pathology/surgery/ultrasonography ; Thigh ; *Ultrasonography, Doppler